The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-06-09
LEXINGTON IS NOT SLOW
BUT Is NOT IN TOO BIG A HURRY
TO GET RICH.

LEAlNGIUN Is NUI SLUW
BUT Is NOT IN TOO BIG A HURRY
TO GET RICH.
The Commencement Exercises OF the
Southern Normal COllege..AbOut Da.
wilson C0unty's Prosperity, &c.
Editorial Correspondence
LEXINGTON, N. c., May 81, 1ss7.-This is
the county seat of the great county of Da-
wilson which was formed in 1922 and nam
ed for Gen. VIM. Davidson of Revolutionary
fame. Lexington was not large enough to
have name before the Revolution. When
the news of the battle of Lexington, Mass,
was received, the place was named. 1t
was thus early baptized in patriotic devo
ton to country. 1t had good name to
make good town-and it has made it.
The population of the place is not large,
numbering about 1, 500 in the town and
suburbs. I do not know town in the
State, with the same population, in which
there are more educated men and women,
more cultivation and refinement. 1t is an
old town and r. tains much of the high or
der of cultivation that was characteristic
of our old North Carolina towns. 1t has
just begun to feel the influence of the new
"booming" of the post bellum age. The
old still predominates. The people are in
dustrious and thrifty, but not too busy to
be cordial to strangers. They are making
money and advancing in business and
manufacturing, but not so much as to for
get the maxim: eff, in our haste to be
rich and mighty, We outrun our eduoa-
tional and religious institutions, they will
never overtake u.s. The stranger, visit
ing the place for the first time will be i'm
pressed with the fact that these people be-
lieve quite as much in good schools and
churches as in stores and mills and fac
tories. The churches, with one exception,
are of brick. Solid structures, they are,
and built, not for a day, but for the next
and as we'll as the present generation.
The Lexington Normal College, of which
Prof P. o. Duncan is Principal, is large
brick building. This College is prosperous
and is we'll housed. On the first of Sep
tember the Lexington Female Seminary, a
school of high grade for girls and young
ladies, will be opened. The brick Semi
nary, now building, is to cost b, 900.
This will give Lexington two first class
schools of which it can be justly proud.
But while the hospitality, the quiet, and
the interest in education keep the town
in the good old ways, it must not be in
ferred that there is no business push in
Lexington, or that the business men are
"slow" Quite the contrary. They do
business in large brick stores and carry
plenty of goods which they sell mainly for
cash. There are very few mortgages given,
merchants do not run the farmers.
They are anxious for trade, but the mer-
chants are not the guardians of the farm
ers in some sections of the East. Most
farmers buy for cash or trade on an open
account. The secret of the prosperity of
the farmers of the county IS due more to
this cash paying system than to any other
one cause.
Among the manufactures of the town
are: The Wennona Cotton Mills, owned
by Mr.. W. f. Holt. 1t has been recently
built-has 5000 spindles-makes plaids-
and gives employment to 100 hands; the
Lexington Roller Mills, belonging to
Grimes Bros-makes 10 barrels of patent
roller flour daily-works two sets of hands,
day and night; the other industries include
a foundry, machine shops, planning mills,
and old process flour mills. A canning
factory will be in operation as soon as to-
matoes ripen. Until this week Lexington
has had no bank. On Monday bank was
opened by gentlemen from Wisconsin.
They are already doing well, and will do
better all the time. Davidson county
farmers have thousands of dollars in old
stockings, in chimney corners, which they
will put in the bank as soon as it has
gained their full confidence.
The Lexington Dispatch, edited by Mr..
T. B. Eldridge, is an excellent county pa
per, faithfully recording the doings of the
people of Davidson county. Mr.. Eldridge
| combines the practice of the law with his
| editorial duties, and deserves great success
at both.
The Lexington bar is one of the best in
the State. Among the lawyers l have
been glad to meet Gen. James Madison
Leach, and Messrs. Frank c. Robbins, NJ.
H. Pinnix, J. T. Raper, Senator S. E. Will
liams, Chief Clerk of the House Geo. NJ.
Bulla, and Zeb V. Walzer. They make a
strong bar. Davidson is large county
and there is much law practice. In addi-
ton to their practice in Davidson, Messrs.
Leach, Pinnix and Robbins, enjoy lucra-
tive practice in other counties of their dis
trict Senator Williams, who represent
ed Davidson with so much credit to him
self in the last Legislature, l found hard
at work. His people endorse his course
in the Senate-and it deserves their en-
dorsement. If Geo. NJ. Bulla, Esq, Chief
Clerk of the House of Representatives., il
not the cleverest Republican in Piedmont
North Carolina, do not know who is He
loves to talk politics, and when not en-
gagged in practising law, or courting the
girls, that is his chief occupation.
Davidson county lies midway of the